Old Industrial Site May Store Contaminated Waste

An abandoned industrial site near Waukegan's Lake Michigan shoreline was the hands-down favorite of people who spoke Thursday night at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hearing to help determine where to dump contaminated sediment.

Dumping the 300,000 cubic yards of waste expected to be removed from Waukegan Harbor into a lakefill constructed near the harbor's recreational marina would just create a hazard to navigation, many speakers said during a public hearing held by the Army Corps.

And an option to truck the stuff to a landfill in Bristol, Wis., according to engineers who addressed the hearing, would be extremely expensive.

The industrial site--a settling basin owned by Johns Manville Corp. near Greenwood Avenue and the Amstutz Expressway--is up the road from the harbor. Bruce Ray, an environmental attorney for Johns Manville, said it is a logical choice because it is really just a big hole in the ground that needs to be filled anyway.

"If it turns out the consensus is to go with our property, I would have to say that it was perhaps natural that these two projects should eventually come together," Ray said.

"You have 300,000 cubic yards of material to get rid of and we have one of the biggest holes in Lake County."

The 40-acre settling basin was once used to let silica sand settle during the manufacture of silicate insulation, Ray said. The basin is part of a 350-acre property just south of Illinois Beach State Park that the company no longer uses, he said.

An important part of the city's economy since it was first settled by fur trappers hundred of years ago, Waukegan Harbor has not been dredged since 1969. The harbor's average depth has been reduced to only 18 feet, forcing the barges that supply harbor-based companies like LaFarge Corp. and U.S. Gypsum to load only halfway to avoid scraping the bottom.

"We have a great interest in this project and we want to see it done properly," said Michael Galayda, district manager for LaFarge, which is based in Quebec.

Waukegan officials say improving Waukegan Harbor would have a major economic impact on the area. But a Waukegan Harbor renaissance, they say, is contingent on dredging the harbor of about five feet of contaminated sand and muck.

Dredging would remove sediment that is contaminated with toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, chemicals once used in manufacturing at the Outboard Marine Corp. Waukegan Harbor plant.

The dredging operation is scheduled to begin in April 2002 and is estimated to cost between $12 million and $15 million. The Army engineers last fall gained approval from Washington to go ahead with the project, pending approval of a disposal site for the dredgings.

Because the material is tainted, Army engineers said they cannot simply dump it into the lake.